Can the G7 still deliver on climate action?

Vidisha Mishra, Director of Policy and Outreach at the Global Solutions Initiative – a Berlin-based think tank advising multilateral fora.

The G7 Canada Summit comes at a time when the gap between climate ambition and delivery is no longer a technical or capacity problem; it’s a political one.

Izabella Teixeira, Brazil’s former environment minister, put it bluntly during the Global Solutions Summit in May 2025 Global Solutions Summit : “We’re not just dealing with climate change—we’re navigating climate politics in a fractured global order.” The G7 must act accordingly.

The world that made the Paris Agreement possible no longer exists. Today’s climate debate is shaped by contested access to critical minerals, energy insecurity, industrial policy races, and hardening geopolitical blocs. As Teixeira warned, climate action is entangled in broader questions of security: energy, food, and human. Pretending otherwise is a strategic failure.

The G7 has previously pledged leadership on climate action. G7 Canada also lists fortifying critical mineral supply chains and energy security as key priorities. key priorities But the Group’s inability to match ambition with implementation is now more complicated due to the current trust deficit.

Paul Samson, President of CIGI and lead for the Canadian Presidency’s Think Tank Secretariat (T7), framed framed the choice sharply: the G7 can evolve into a platform of renewed purpose—or slide into managed irrelevance. One path sees the G7 as a strategic hub that adapts and expands, partnering with new actors across regions. The other keeps the circle closed and loses influence to emerging coalitions.

Australia and South Korea are logical candidates for closer integration. But India also appears to be looming large. While not yet a member, India is central to any serious strategy for climate delivery—both as a global emissions player and as a driver of South-South cooperation on clean energy access.

Samson also noted that continued U.S. engagement is non-negotiable, and a “G6” without Washington is a non-starter. Yet when U.S. priorities diverge—as they often do on climate—others must step up.

That means leveraging platforms like the G20 and the UN to keep climate momentum alive. The Africa–Europe cooperation, within a more aligned G7–G20 architecture, could also offer a critical avenue and voice to foster climate-smart collaboration, from green infrastructure to sustainable industrialization.

Divergence should be a signal to innovate, not an excuse to stall. Notably, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is also expected expected to attend G7 Summit, and hold key bilateral meetings ahead of the G20 summit in South Africa in November.

Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Global Solutions Summit 2025 - Reimagining Global Collaboration co-lead of G20 South Africa’s Think20 (T20) process, pointed to a deeper failing in multilateralism: “We’ve failed to articulate why global cooperation still matters. If people and governments no longer see how institutions like the G7, WTO, or COP serve their everyday needs, multilateralism will continue to erode.”

The G7 must help rebuild that case—not through slogans, but through actions that resonate. Take the gender-energy-poverty nexus: Women in the Global South are disproportionately disproportionately affected by energy poverty. Access to clean, affordable energy is not only a climate issue—it’s a basic justice issue. The human stakes of global cooperation must be made more visible.

Launched at the Global Solutions Summit, the Think7 (T7) Communiqué Think7 (T7) Communiqué laid out a pragmatic blueprint. It urged the G7 to treat energy security and climate action as mutually reinforcing—tripling renewables, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, and investing in critical minerals with integrity.

On finance, the ask is urgent: Fix the broken system. That means new instruments—green credit lines, debt-for-resilience swaps, nature-linked bonds. Without tangible financing solutions, climate ambition will collapse under its own weight. Whether the G7 delivers real action, or hedges with ambiguity, will shape the global response to escalating climate insecurity.

The G7 Summit takes place against the backdrop of multiple escalating conflicts and trade wars that will no doubt take centre stage. Canada has decided to forego forego the annual practice of negotiating a joint communique at the end of the meeting to contain disagreements.

On the other hand, as international negotiations are wrapping up on the outcome of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) at the end of June, the world is watching. FfD4 is not a footnote to this week’s G7 Summit. It is a downstream test of G7 credibility.

There is still an opportunity for the G7 to showcase its ability to provide direction on energy security and other global development priorities. The stakes—for people, planet, and the G7 itself—are too high for inaction.